Come and See

File:Focke Wulf Fw189.jpg. A reconnaissance aircraft of this model repeatedly appears in scenes flying above Flyora's head throughout Come and See.]]

In 1943, Flyora and another Belarusian boy dig up an abandoned SVT-40 rifle from a sand-filled trench to join the Soviet partisan forces. They do so in defiance of their village elder, who warns them that this would arouse the suspicions of the occupying Germans and tells them to leave. The boys' activities are noticed by an Fw 189 reconnaissance aircraft, flying overhead.

The next day, partisans arrive at Flyora's house to conscript him, against his mother's wishes who attempts to prevent him from going with the partisans. Flyora is taken to a partisan camp in the forest, where he becomes a low-rank militiaman who performs menial tasks. When the partisans meet in the forest, and those partisans trained to fight leave, their commander Kosach orders Flyora and several other men to remain behind at the camp. The men who stayed behind in the camp will set up a reserve camp. Bitterly disappointed, Flyora walks into the forest weeping. He hears a girl crying in the distance and finds the girl is Glasha, an adolescent girl working as a partisan nurse. Glasha appears emotionally unstable, and mocks Flyora when he tries to act mature; she taunts that he isn't living, and expresses a want to love and have children. The forest is suddenly attacked by dive bombers and German paratroopers, partially deafening Flyora and forcing the duo to flee into the forest. Flyora and Glasha hide in a ditch when they see German officers passing through the forest, where they sleep under a tree for the night. The two exhibit psychosis, first appearing catatonic although playing with manic joy, the next day.

Flyora and Glasha travel to his village, only to find his home deserted and covered in flies. They find Flyora's village is empty. Denying that his family is dead, Flyora believes they are hiding on a nearby island across a bog and runs off. Glasha follows, turning her head by chance and seeing a pile of executed villagers behind his house, before yelling at Flyora to leave the village quickly. The two become hysterical after wading through the bog, where Glasha screams at Flyora that his family is dead; Flyora pushes her into the water, then immediately tries to rescue her. Rubezh, a partisan fighter, comes across them and takes them to meet the surviving villagers. The village elder, severely burned by gasoline, tells Flyora of his family's deaths and repeats his warning about digging up the rifles. Flyora attempts suicide out of guilt by submerging his head in the bog, but Glasha and the villagers save and comfort him.

Rubezh takes Flyora and two other men to raid an unguarded warehouse for food; Glasha says she will wait for Flyora to return, but he is despondent. The group finds the warehouse guarded by German troops and are forced to retreat, causing the two companions to be killed by a land mine. Rubezh and Flyora steal a cow from a collaborating farmer, but a German machine gun fires upon them, killing Rubezh and the cow. Flyora attempts to steal a horse and cart from a man to transport the cow, but SS troops appear. The man convinces Flyora to hide his gun and jacket, and takes him to Perekhody village.

The man hurriedly explains a fake identity to Flyora, and takes him to his house to introduce Flyora to his family members, friends, and neighbors, while an SS {{lang|de|Einsatzkommando}} accompanied by collaborators from the Russian Liberation Army and Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118, surround and occupy the village. Flyora leaves the house, runs to a street, and sees women, children, and the elderly forcibly being marched down the street. Flyora tries to warn the townsfolk that they are being herded to their deaths, but he is stopped by a German officer and forced into a church with them. The Germans barricade the doors, leaving the people inside hysterically screaming. A officer suggests that the adult men and women climb out through a window without their children, which causes the people inside to get furious at this suggestion and call the German officers beasts. Flyora and a young woman with a child exit the church; the woman's child is thrown back into the church while she is dragged by her hair to be gang raped. German soldiers throw explosives inside the church, causing the people inside to scream louder, while barricading the windows. The church is then set on fire, and the German soldiers shoot the church and throw large flamethrowers at the church, killing everyone inside. A German officer holds a cocked pistol to Flyora's head to pose for a picture, then abandons him as the soldiers leave.

{{multiple image

| total_width = 300

| image1 = Klara Hitler.jpg

| image2 = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-0322-506, Adolf Hitler, Kinderbild retouched.jpg

| footer = These two photos (Klara; left, and Adolf; right) were merged by Klimov to create the picture that Flyora stops shooting at.

}}

Flyora wanders away from the scorched village, finding the aftermath of a partisan ambush on the Germans. Flyora recovers his jacket and rifle, only to spot the gang-raped woman, bleeding and stumbling in a fugue state; Flyora recalls Glasha, and her want for love and children. Flyora finds Kosach and the partisans nearby, having captured eleven of the Germans and their collaborators. They all plead for their lives and deflect blame save for a fanatical {{lang|de|Obersturmführer}}, who is unapologetic and claims their genocide will succeed. Kosach suggests that one collaborator douse the others with petrol, which the collaborator willingly does so, but the disgusted partisans shoot them before they can be set on fire.

As the partisans leave, Flyora notices a boy looking at a framed portrait of Adolf Hitler in a puddle. When the boy leaves, Flyora proceeds to shoot the portrait numerous times. As he does so, a montage of clips from Hitler's life plays in reverse, but when Hitler is shown as a baby on his mother Klara's lap, Flyora stops shooting and cries. A title card informs "628 Belorussian villages were destroyed, along with all their inhabitants".{{cite book |last=Youngblood |first=Denise Jeanne |title=Russian War Films. On the Cinema Front, 1914–2005 |url=https://archive.org/details/russianwarfilmso0000youn |year=2007 |location=Lawrence, Kansas |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-700-61489-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/russianwarfilmso0000youn/page/197 197]}} Flyora rushes to rejoin his comrades, and they march through the birch woods while in the meantime a season passes and snow blankets the ground.

• Aleksei Kravchenko as Flyora/Florian Gaishun
• Olga Mironova as Glasha/Glafira
• Liubomiras Laucevičius as Kosach (voiced by Valery Kravchenko)
• Vladas Bagdonas as Rubezh
• Tatyana Shestakova as Flyora's mother
• Yevgeny Tilicheyev as Gezhel the main collaborator
• Viktors Lorents as Walter Stein the German commander
• Jüri Lumiste as the fanatical German officer

Klimov co-wrote the screenplay with Ales Adamovich, who fought with the Belarusian partisans as a teenager. According to the director's recollections, work on the film began in 1977:

{{blockquote|The 40th anniversary of the Great Victory was approaching.{{cite news |last=Dunne |first=Nathan |title=Atrocity exhibition: is Come and See Russia's greatest ever war film? |url=https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/6415/come-and-see-elem-klimov-war-film-bastards-star-brest-fortress |website=The Calvert Journal |date=18 July 2016 |access-date=20 July 2019 |archive-date=20 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190720074725/https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/6415/come-and-see-elem-klimov-war-film-bastards-star-brest-fortress |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Noah |first=Will |title=Elem Klimov's Boundary-Pushing Satires |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5257-elem-klimov-s-boundary-pushing-satires |publisher=The Criterion Collection |date=10 January 2018 |access-date=11 November 2018 |archive-date=20 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620222137/https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5257-elem-klimov-s-boundary-pushing-satires |url-status=live }} The management had to be given something topical. I had been reading and rereading the book I Am from the Fiery Village, which consisted of the first-hand accounts of people who miraculously survived the horrors of the fascist genocide in Belorussia. Many of them were still alive then, and Belorussians managed to record some of their memories onto film. I will never forget the face and eyes of one peasant, and his quiet recollection about how his whole village had been herded into a church, and how just before they were about to be burned, an officer gave them the offer: "Whoever has no children can leave". And he couldn't take it, he left, and left behind his wife and little kids ... or about how another village was burned: the adults were all herded into a barn, but the children were left behind. And later, the drunk men surrounded them with sheepdogs and let the dogs tear the children to pieces.

And then I thought: the world doesn't know about Khatyn! They know about Katyn, about the massacre of the Polish officers there. But they don't know about Belorussia. Even though more than 600 villages were burned there!

And I decided to make a film about this tragedy. I perfectly understood that the film would end up a harsh one. I decided that the central role of the village lad Flyora would not be played by a professional actor, who upon immersion into a difficult role could have protected himself psychologically with his accumulated acting experience, technique and skill. I wanted to find a simple boy fourteen years of age. We had to prepare him for the most difficult experiences, then capture them on film. And at the same time, we had to protect him from the stresses so that he wasn't left in the loony bin after filming was over, but was returned to his mother alive and healthy. Fortunately, with Aleksei Kravchenko, who played Flyora and who later became a good actor, everything went smoothly.

The events with the people, the peasants, actually happened as shown in the film. [It] doesn't have any professional actors. Even the language spoken in the film is Belarusian. What was important was that all the events depicted in the film really did happen in Belarus.

I understood that this would be a very brutal film and that it was unlikely that people would be able to watch it. I told this to my screenplay co-author, the writer Ales Adamovich. But he replied: "Let them not watch it, then. This is something we must leave after us. As evidence of war, and as a plea for peace."|Elem Klimov{{cite journal |last=Holloway |first=Ron |title=Interview with Elem Klimov |url=https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/view/1191/1472 |journal=Kinema |year=1986 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-date=23 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230823013749/https://openjournals.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/kinema/article/view/1191/1472 |url-status=live }}}}

The original Belarusian and Russian title of the film derives from Chapter 6 of the Book of Revelation, where in the first, third, fifth, and seventh verse is written "{{Lang|be|Ідзі і глядзі}}" in Belarusian{{cite web |url=https://carkva-gazeta.by/biblija/index.php?z=n&id=27&sv=6 |title=Адкрыцьцё (Апакаліпсіс) 6. Беларускі пераклад Васіля Сёмухі |trans-title=Revelation (Apocalypse) 6. Belarusian translation by Vasyl Semukha |access-date=29 November 2022 |language=be |archive-date=29 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129214413/https://carkva-gazeta.by/biblija/index.php?z=n&id=27&sv=6 |url-status=dead }} (English: {{Bibleverse|Rev|6:1-7|KJV|"Come and see"}}, Greek: {{lang|grc|{{Bibleverse|Rev.|6:1-7|SBLGNT|Ἔρχου καὶ ἴδε}}}}, {{lang|grc-Latn|Erchou kai ide}}[http://www.spiritandtruth.org/teaching/teachers/tony_garland/bio.htm Garland, Anthony Charles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108162907/http://www.spiritandtruth.org/teaching/teachers/tony_garland/bio.htm |date=8 November 2012 }} (2007). {{cite book|title=A Testimony of Jesus Christ - Volume 1. A Commentary on the Book of Revelation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K7vqJyRAdj4C | publisher=SpiritAndTruth.org |isbn=978-0-978-88641-7 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K7vqJyRAdj4C&dq=%22Ἐρχου+καὶ+ἴδε%22%22Erchou+kai+ide%22%22Come+and+see%22%22Rev.+6:1,+3,+5,+7%22&pg=PA325 325] |year=2007 }} and "{{Lang|ru|Иди и смотри}}" in Russian) as an invitation to look upon the destruction caused by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.{{cite news |last=Wise |first=Damon |date=28 October 2013 |title=Top 10 war movies. 5. Come and See |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/28/top-10-war-movies |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=4 July 2016 |archive-date=21 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621053641/https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/28/top-10-war-movies |url-status=live }}The same biblical quote is at the center of the film Horsemen (2009). {{Bibleverse|Rev|6:7-8|KJV|Chapter 6, verses 7–8}} have been cited as being particularly relevant to the film:

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, "Come and see!" And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

To prepare the 14-year-old Kravchenko for the role, Klimov called a hypnotist with autogenic training. "[Kravchenko's acting] could have had a very sad ending. He could have landed in an insane asylum," Klimov said. "I realized I had to inject him with content which he did not possess," "This is an age when a boy does not know what true hatred is, what true love is." "In the end, Mr. Kravchenko was able to concentrate so intensely that it seemed as if he had hypnotized himself for the role."{{cite news |last=Ramsey |first=Nancy |date=28 January 2001 |title=FILM; They Prized Social, Not Socialist, Reality |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/28/movies/film-they-prized-social-not-socialist-reality.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=17 July 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123121906/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/28/movies/film-they-prized-social-not-socialist-reality.html |archive-date=23 November 2018}}

For eight years, filming could not begin because the State Committee for Cinematography ({{lang|ru-Latn|Goskino}}) would not accept the screenplay, considering it too realistic, calling it propaganda for the "aesthetics of dirtiness" and "naturalism". Alongside this, the death of Klimov's wife Larisa Shepitko, also a filmmaker, in 1979 forced him to first complete the work she began on what was to be her next film, Farewell; it would finally be released in 1983.{{cite web|title=Come and See|url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/359-/ComeAndSee_press-notes_r1_original.pdf|website=Janus Films|access-date=23 March 2020|date=2020|archive-date=17 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717031606/https://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/janus_promo_packages/359-/ComeAndSee_press-notes_r1_original.pdf|url-status=live}} Eventually in 1984, Klimov was able to start filming without having compromised to any censorship at all. The only change became the name of the film itself, to Come and See from the original, Kill Hitler{{cite book |last=Niemi |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Niemi |title=100 Great War Movies. The Real History Behind the Films |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94RSDwAAQBAJ |chapter=Come and See [Russian: Idi i smotri] (1985) |pages=61–63 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=94RSDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Come+and+See+%5BRussian:+Idi+i+smotri%5D+(1985)%22&pg=PA61 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, California |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-440-83386-1}} (Klimov also says this in the 2006 UK DVD release).{{cite video |url=https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&q=%22Elem+Klimov+about+Come+and+see%22%22solidaritet2010%22+2010 |title=Elem Klimov about Come and see (interview with English subtitles) |date=18 June 2010 |access-date=20 February 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210827025127/https://www.google.com/search?tbm=vid&q=%22Elem+Klimov+about+Come+and+see%22%22solidaritet2010%22+2010 |url-status=live }}

The film was shot in chronological order over a period of nine months. Kravchenko said that he underwent "the most debilitating fatigue and hunger. I kept a most severe diet, and after the filming was over I returned to school not only thin, but grey-haired."{{cite news |url=http://bulvar.com.ua/gazeta/archive/s456-29_930/330.html |script-title=ru:Алексей КРАВЧЕНКО: "Со съемок фильма Климова "Иди и смотри" я вернулся не только страшно худой, но и седой" |trans-title=Aleksey Kravchenko: "From the making of Klimov's film Come and See I returned not only terribly skinny, but also grizzled" |author=Вера Маевская [Vera Maevskaia] |newspaper=Бульвар [Boulevard] |number=29 |date=20 July 2004 |access-date=31 March 2018 |language=ru |archive-date=12 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712100214/http://bulvar.com.ua/gazeta/archive/s456-29_930/330.html |url-status=live }} Contrary to what some rumors suggest, though, Kravchenko's hair did not turn permanently grey. In fact, a special silver Interferenz greasepaint, alongside a thin layer of actual silver, was used to dye his hair. This made it difficult to get it back to normal, so Kravchenko had to live with his hair like this for some time after shooting the film.{{Cite web |last=Wess |first=Richard |url=https://www.rbth.com/arts/332350-come-and-see-soviet-movie |title=9 Must-Know Facts About Come and See |work=Russia Beyond |date=22 June 2020 |access-date=7 July 2020 |archive-date=23 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623050458/https://www.rbth.com/arts/332350-come-and-see-soviet-movie |url-status=live }}

To create the maximum sense of immediacy, realism, hyperrealism, and surrealism operating in equal measure,{{cite book |last=Menashe |first=Louis |title=Moscow Believes in Tears. Russians and Their Movies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S3u3b_U-c78C |year=2014 |orig-year=2010 |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=New Academia Publishing, LLC |isbn=978-0-984-58322-5 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=S3u3b_U-c78C&dq=%22Come+and+See+(1985)%22+Klimov&pg=PA95 95]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=S3u3b_U-c78C&dq=%22Come+and+See%22+Klimov&pg=PA96 96]}} Klimov and his cameraman Aleksei Rodionov employed naturalistic colors and lots of Steadicam shots; the film is full of extreme close-ups of faces, does not flinch from the unpleasant details of burnt flesh and bloodied corpses, and the guns were often loaded with live ammunition as opposed to blanks.{{cite web |last=Stilwell |first=Blake |title=This Soviet WWII movie used real bullets instead of blanks |url=http://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/come-and-see-wwii-movie-used-real-bullets-on-set-instead-of-blanks |website=wearethemighty.com |date=26 April 2017 |access-date=31 March 2018 |archive-date=12 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412061747/https://www.wearethemighty.com/articles/come-and-see-wwii-movie-used-real-bullets-on-set-instead-of-blanks/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Gault |first=Matthew |title='Come and See' Turns the Eastern Front Into a Hallucinatory Hellscape |url=https://warisboring.com/come-and-see-turns-the-eastern-front-into-a-hallucinatory-hellscape/ |website=warisboring.com |date=28 May 2016 |access-date=31 March 2018 |archive-date=15 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715004632/https://warisboring.com/come-and-see-turns-the-eastern-front-into-a-hallucinatory-hellscape/ |url-status=live }} Kravchenko mentioned in interviews that bullets sometimes passed just 4 inches (10 centimeters) above his head (such as in the cow scene). Very little protection was provided on the set. When the dive bombs were detonated the camera crew only had a concrete slab 1.5 meters tall and 5 meters wide ({{convert|1.5|x|5|m|disp=out}}) to protect them. At the same time the {{lang|fr|mise-en-scène}} is fragmentary and disjointed: there are discontinuities between shots as characters appear in close up and then disappear off camera. Elsewhere, the moment of revelation is marked by a disorienting zoom-in/dolly-out shot.

The original soundtrack is rhythmically amorphous music composed by Oleg Yanchenko.{{cite book |last=Egorova |first=Tatiana K. |others=Translated by Tatiana A. Ganf and Natalia Aleksandrovna Egunova |title=Soviet Film Music. An Historical Survey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxwJAQAAMAAJ |year=1997 |publisher=Harwood Academic Publishers |location=Reading, Berkshire |isbn=978-3-718-65910-4 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_GAqaftUsecC&dq=%22Elem+Klimov%27s&pg=PA243 243]}} At a few key points in the film classical music from mainly German or Austrian composers are used, such as The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II.{{cite news |title=Whitegirl Julia Stiles in Save the Last Dance |url=http://www.nypress.com/news/whitegirl-julia-stiles-in-save-the-last-dance-BVNP1020010131301319999 |newspaper=New York Press |date=16 February 2015 |access-date=6 November 2021}} The Soviet marching song "The Sacred War"{{cite book |last=Kirschenbaum |first=Lisa A. |editor-last1=Biess |editor-first1=Frank |editor-last2=Moeller |editor-first2=Robert G. |title=Histories of the Aftermath. The Legacies of the Second World War in Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wc570pHou7EC |year=2010 |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=New York City |isbn=978-1-845-45732-7 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Wc570pHou7EC&dq=%22Elem+Klimov%27s+1985+film+Come+and+See+%28Idi+i+smotri%29%22%22Holy+War%22%22%28Sviashchennaia+voina%29%22&pg=PA67 67]}} and Russian folk song "Korobeiniki" (Vadim Kozin) ({{lit|"Pedlars"}}) are played in the movie once. During the scene where Glasha dances, the background music is some fragments of Mary Dixon's song from Grigori Aleksandrov's 1936 film Circus.{{cite book |last=Salys |first=Rimgaila |author-link=Rimgaila Salys |title=The Musical Comedy Films of Grigorii Aleksandrov. Laughing Matters |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cDk8d2UMRLwC |year=2009 |publisher=Intellect Books |location=Bristol |isbn=978-1-841-50282-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=cDk8d2UMRLwC&dq=%22Come+and+See%22+Circus+Grigorii+Aleksandrov&pg=PA151 151]}} At the end, during the photographic montage, music by Richard Wagner is used, most notably the overture from Tannhauser.{{Cite web |last=Han |first=Ye Un |date=11 May 2025 |title=Youtube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-NI4WixVUg |access-date=11 May 2025 |website=Youtube}}

At the end of the film, the partisans walk through a winter woodland to the sound of Mozart's Lacrimosa before the camera tilts towards the sky and the ending credits appear. Film critic Roger Ebert commented on this scene as follows:{{cite web |url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-come-and-see-1985 |title=Come and See |last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=16 June 2010 |work=RogerEbert.com |access-date=25 February 2014 |archive-date=16 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220716175130/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-come-and-see-1985 |url-status=live }}

{{blockquote|There's a curious scene here in a wood, the sun falling down through the leaves, when the soundtrack, which has been grim and mournful, suddenly breaks free into Mozart. And what does this signify? A fantasy, I believe, and not {{sic|Florya's}}, who has probably never heard such music. The Mozart descends into the film like a deus ex machina, to lift us from its despair. We can accept it if we want, but it changes nothing. It is like an ironic taunt.}}

Come and See had its world premiere in the competition program at the 14th Moscow International Film Festival on 9 July 1985.{{cite web |title=Иди и смотри (1985) — дата выхода в России и других странах — Кинопоиск |trans-title=Come and See (1985) — release date in Russia and other countries - Film search |url=https://www.kinopoisk.ru/film/42571/dates/ |work=Кинопоиск [Film search] |access-date=28 May 2023 |language=ru}} It was theatrically released on 17 October 1985, drawing 28.9 million viewers and ranking sixth at the box office of 1986. It grossed $71,909 in the United States and Canada,{{Cite web |url=https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Come-and-See#tab=summary |title=Come and See (1985) - Financial Information |publisher=The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC |access-date=6 December 2023 |archive-date=10 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220110153840/https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Come-and-See#tab=summary |url-status=live }} and $20.9 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of nearly $21 million, plus nearly $1.3 million with home video sales.

In 2017, the film received an official restoration overseen by Karen Shakhnazarov. It won the Venice Classics Award for Best Restored Film, and was also shown in several European independent cinemas again.{{cite web |title=Biennale Cinema 2017 {{!}} Official Awards of the 74th Venice Film Festival |url=https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/official-awards-74th-venice-film-festival |publisher=Venice Film Festival |date=9 September 2017 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-date=25 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625141120/https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/official-awards-74th-venice-film-festival+%22the+VENICE+CLASSICS+AWARD+FOR+BEST+RESTORED+FILM%22%22IDI+I+SMOTRI+(COME+AND+SEE)%22%22by+Elem+Klimov+(USSR,+1985)%22 |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |url=https://lumiere.nl/en/movies/kom-en-zie-engels-ondertiteld |title=Come And See (Idi I Smotri) - English subtitled - Lumière Cinema Maastricht |website=lumiere.nl |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-date=12 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210712100215/https://lumiere.nl/en/movies/kom-en-zie-engels-ondertiteld |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |url=https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=22056 |title=New Restoration of Elem Klimov's Come and See Wins Best Restored Film Award at Venice Classics |website=blu-ray.com |date=11 September 2017 |access-date=19 February 2020 |archive-date=15 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715224027/https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=22056 |url-status=live }}

In 2001 the film was released on DVD in the United States by Kino Lorber. This release is currently out-of-print. The film became available on FilmStruck, the streaming service for the Criterion Collection from its opening on 1 November 2016 to its closing on 29 November 2018, and from November 2019 on the new Criterion Channel service.{{cite web |title=Come and See - The Criterion Channel |url=https://www.criterionchannel.com/come-and-see |website=criterionchannel.com |access-date=28 February 2020 |archive-date=23 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623050547/https://www.criterionchannel.com/come-and-see |url-status=live }} On 18 December 2019, Janus Films released a trailer{{Cite tweet |user=janusfilms |author=Janus Films |author-link=Janus Films |number=1207363678066098177 |title=COME AND SEE https://bit.ly/2rO8YbL |date=18 December 2019 |accessdate=18 February 2020}}{{Cite web |url=https://vimeo.com/379352025 |title=COME AND SEE - NEW RESTORATION TRAILER |author=Janus Films |date=13 December 2019 |via=Vimeo |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-date=16 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616143707/https://vimeo.com/379352025 |url-status=live }} for a 2k-restoration that premiered at the Film Forum in New York City on 21 February 2020{{Cite web |last=Barfield |first=Charles |url=https://theplaylist.net/come-see-2k-restoration-trailer-20191218 |title='Come And See' 2K Restoration Trailer: Elem Klimov Incredible War Gets Re-Released In 2020 |website=theplaylist.net |date=18 December 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-date=16 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210716033927/https://theplaylist.net/come-see-2k-restoration-trailer-20191218/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1303675393/ |title=Come and See (21 February 2020 re-release) |publisher=Box Office Mojo. IMDbPro |access-date=18 March 2020 |archive-date=18 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218134856/https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl1303675393/ |url-status=live }} with a theatrical run{{cite web |url=http://www.janusfilms.com/comeandsee |title=WANDA - Janus Films |publisher=Janus Films |access-date=18 March 2020 |archive-date=13 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200313231220/http://www.janusfilms.com/comeandsee |url-status=dead}} and then a home media release through Criterion was released on 30 June 2020.{{Cite tweet |user=janusfilms |author=Janus Films |number=1210304215454830592 |title=Click to see the full poster for our new restoration of COME AND SEE! Will be on sale soon @Criterion |date=26 December 2019 |accessdate=18 March 2020}}

File:Aleksei Kravchenko.png (aged 14 at the time of the film's production) was widely acclaimed, and is considered by critics and the public as one of the greatest ever performances by a child actor.{{Cite web |title=100 Greatest Child Actor Performances in Film |url=https://www.listchallenges.com/100-greatest-child-actor-performances-in-film |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=List Challenges |archive-date=15 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240615074258/https://www.listchallenges.com/100-greatest-child-actor-performances-in-film |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Babiolakis |first=Andreas |date=2017-10-20 |title=10 Actors Who Disappeared After Career-Defining Performances |url=https://www.tasteofcinema.com/2017/10-actors-who-disappeared-after-career-defining-performances/ |access-date=2024-06-15 |website=Taste of Cinema - Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists}}]]

Initial reception was positive. Walter Goodman wrote for The New York Times that "The history is harrowing and the presentation is graphic ... Powerful material, powerfully rendered ...", and dismissed the ending as "a dose of instant inspirationalism," but conceded to Klimov's "unquestionable talent."{{cite news |last=Goodman |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Goodman (critic) |title=Film: 'Come and See', from Soviet |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/06/movies/film-come-and-see-from-soviet.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=6 February 1987 |access-date=30 May 2013 |archive-date=3 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303124233/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/06/movies/film-come-and-see-from-soviet.html |url-status=live }} Rita Kempley, of The Washington Post, wrote that "directing with an angry eloquence, [Klimov] taps into that hallucinatory nether world of blood and mud and escalating madness that Francis Ford Coppola found in Apocalypse Now. And though he draws a surprisingly vivid performance from his inexperienced teen lead, Klimov's prowess is his visual poetry, muscular and animistic, like compatriot Andrei Konchalovsky's in his epic Siberiade."{{cite news |last=Kempley |first=Rita |date=25 September 1987 |title=Come and See review |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/comeandseenrkempley_a0ca58.htm |newspaper=The Washington Post |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=7 January 2017 |archive-date=4 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104162820/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/comeandseenrkempley_a0ca58.htm |url-status=live }} Mark Le Fanu wrote in Sight & Sound that Come and See is a "powerful war film ... The director has elicited an excellent performance from his central actor Kravchenko".{{cite journal |last=Le Fanu |first=Mark |journal=Sight & Sound |title=Partisan {{!}} Come and See Review |date=Spring 1987 |publisher=British Film Institute |url=https://archive.org/details/Sight_and_Sound_1987_04_BFI_GB/page/n65/mode/2up |access-date=18 February 2020}}

According to Klimov, the film was so shocking for audiences that ambulances were sometimes called in to take away particularly impressionable viewers, both in the Soviet Union and abroad.

Come and See was selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 58th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1986 |title=The 58th Academy Awards (1986) Nominees and Winners |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences |date=24 March 1986 |access-date=5 March 2020 |archive-date=2 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402004226/http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1986 |url-status=live }}

The film has since been widely praised in later decades. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89%, based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "As effectively anti-war as movies can be, Come and See is a harrowing odyssey through the worst that humanity is capable of, directed with bravura intensity by Elem Klimov."{{cite web |title=Come and See (Idi i smotri) (1985) |date=6 February 1987 |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1036052_come_and_see |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media |access-date=25 December 2024 |archive-date=8 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108050421/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1036052_come_and_see |url-status=live }}

In 2001, Daneet Steffens of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Klimov alternates the horrors of war with occasional fairy tale-like images; together they imbue the film with an unapologetically disturbing quality that persists long after the credits roll."{{cite magazine |url=http://ew.com/article/2001/11/02/come-and-see/ |title=Come and See |last=Steffens |first=Daneet |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |date=2 November 2001 |access-date=20 January 2017 |archive-date=15 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715222059/https://ew.com/article/2001/11/02/come-and-see/ |url-status=dead }}

In 2001, J. Hoberman of The Village Voice reviewed Come and See, writing the following: "Directed for baroque intensity, Come and See is a robust art film with aspirations to the visionary – not so much graphic as leisurely literal-minded in its representation of mass murder. (The movie has been compared both to Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan, and it would not be surprising to learn that Steven Spielberg had screened it before making either of these.) The film's central atrocity is a barbaric circus of blaring music and barking dogs in which a squadron of drunken German soldiers round up and parade the peasants to their fiery doom ... The bit of actual death-camp corpse footage that Klimov uses is doubly disturbing in that it retrospectively diminishes the care with which he orchestrates the town's destruction. For the most part, he prefers to show the Gorgon as reflected in Perseus's shield. There are few images more indelible than the sight of young Aleksei Kravchenko's fear-petrified expression."{{cite news |last=Hoberman |first=J. |author-link=J. Hoberman |date=30 January 2001 |title=High Lonesome |url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2001/01/30/high-lonesome/ |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York City |access-date=25 February 2014 |archive-date=12 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220312112255/https://www.villagevoice.com/2001/01/30/high-lonesome/ |url-status=live }} In the same publication in 2009, Elliott Stein described Come and See as "a startling mixture of lyrical poeticism and expressionist nightmare."{{cite news |last=Stein |first=Elliott |author-link=Elliott Stein |date=18 August 2009 |title=Come and See |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-08-18/voice-choices/come-and-see/ |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York City |access-date=25 February 2014 |archive-date=22 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022091434/http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-08-18/voice-choices/come-and-see/ |url-status=dead }}

In 2002, Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club wrote that Klimov's "impressions are unforgettable: the screaming cacophony of a bombing run broken up by the faint sound of a Mozart fugue, a dark, arid field suddenly lit up by eerily beautiful orange flares, German troops appearing like ghosts out of the heavy morning fog. A product of the glasnost era, Come and See is far from a patriotic memorial of Russia's hard-won victory. Instead, it's a chilling reminder of that victory's terrible costs."{{cite news |last=Tobias |first=Scott |date=19 April 2002 |title=Come And See |url=http://www.avclub.com/review/come-and-see-17863 |work=The A.V. Club |location=Chicago |publisher=Onion, Inc. |access-date=25 February 2014 |archive-date=24 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624044543/http://www.avclub.com/review/come-and-see-17863 |url-status=live }} British magazine The Word wrote that "Come and See is widely regarded as the finest war film ever made, though possibly not by Great Escape fans."{{cite news |date=July 2006 |newspaper=The Word |location=London |issue=41 |page=122}} Tim Lott wrote in 2009 that the film "makes Apocalypse Now look lightweight".{{cite news |last=Lott |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Lott |date=24 July 2009 |title=The worst best films ever made |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/24/worst-best-films-ever-made |work=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=25 February 2014 |archive-date=10 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220410003200/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jul/24/worst-best-films-ever-made |url-status=live }}

In 2006, Geoffrey Macnab of Sight & Sound wrote: "Klimov's astonishing war movie combines intense lyricism with the kind of violent bloodletting that would make even Sam Peckinpah pause".{{cite journal | journal = Sight & Sound | year = 2006 | page = 50 | volume = 16 | issue = 1–6 | first = Geoffrey | last = Macnab | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=dImGAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Klimov%27s+astonishing+war+movie+combines+intense+lyricism+with+the+kind+of+violent+bloodletting+that+would+make+even+Sam+Peckinpah+pause+.%22 | title = NA | publisher = British Film Institute}}

On 16 June 2010, Roger Ebert posted a review of Come and See as part of his "Great Movies" series, describing it as "one of the most devastating films ever about anything, and in it, the survivors must envy the dead ... The film depicts brutality and is occasionally very realistic, but there's an overlay of muted nightmarish exaggeration ... I must not describe the famous sequence at the end. It must unfold as a surprise for you. It pretends to roll back history. You will see how. It is unutterably depressing, because history can never undo itself, and is with us forever."

Come and See appears on many lists of films considered the best. In 2008, Come and See was placed at number 60 on Empire magazine's "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time".{{cite news |date=November 2008 |title=The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time |url=http://www.empireonline.com/500/86.asp |work=Empire |access-date=19 February 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310130224/http://www.empireonline.com/500/86.asp |archive-date=10 March 2012}} It also made Channel 4's list of 50 Films to See Before You Die{{cite web |url=http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/feature.jsp?id=161521&page=3 |title=Film4's 50 Films To See Before You Die |publisher=Channel 4 |date=22 July 2006 |access-date=19 February 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080427033317/http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/feature.jsp?id=161521&page=3 |archive-date=27 April 2008}} and was ranked number 24 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.{{cite news |date=2010 |title=The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema |url=http://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cinema-films/default.asp?film=24 |work=Empire |access-date=19 February 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111202083628/https://www.empireonline.com/features/100-greatest-world-cinema-films/default.asp?film=24 |archive-date=2 December 2011}} Phil de Semlyen of Empire has described the work as "Elim {{sic}} Klimov’s seriously influential, deeply unsettling Belarusian opus. No film – not Apocalypse Now, not Full Metal Jacket – spells out the dehumanizing impact of conflict more vividly, or ferociously ... An impressionist masterpiece and possibly the worst date movie ever."{{cite news |last=de Semlyen |first=Phil |url=http://www.empireonline.com/features/become-a-genre-expert-war/p9 |title=Become A War Films Expert In Ten Easy Movies |work=Empire |date=11 October 2010 |access-date=18 February 2020 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019214341/http://www.empireonline.com/features/become-a-genre-expert-war/p9 |archive-date=19 October 2012}} It ranked 154 among critics, and 30 among directors, in the 2012 Sight & Sound polls of the greatest films ever made,{{cite web |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b72b62c27/sightandsoundpoll2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202045629/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b72b62c27/sightandsoundpoll2012 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2 February 2017 |title=Votes for IDI I SMOTRI (1985) |work=Sight & Sound |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=20 January 2017}} while it ranked 104 among critics, and 41 among directors, in the 2022 Sight & Sound polls. The film is generally considered one of the greatest anti-war movies ever made, and one with the most historically accurate depictions of the crimes on the Eastern Front.{{cite book |last=Kirschenbaum |first=Lisa A. |title=The Legacy of the Siege of Leningrad, 1941–1995. Myth, Memories, and Monuments |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jt8QVm8dPaQC |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-139-46065-1 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=jt8QVm8dPaQC&dq=%22Elem+Klimov's+even+bleaker+Come+and+See+(Idi+i+smotri%2C+1985)%22&pg=PA180 180f.]}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.viennale.at/en/films/idi-i-smotri |title=Idi i smotri {{!}} Viennale |publisher=Vienna International Film Festival |date=15 November 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-date=20 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220320034434/https://www.viennale.at/en/films/idi-i-smotri |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Kumar |first=Arun |url=https://www.highonfilms.com/come-and-see-1985-a-chilling-and-indelible-reminder-of-nazi-carnage/ |title=Come and See [1985]: A Chilling and Indelible Reminder of Nazi Carnage |work=highonfilms.com |date=30 June 2019 |access-date=18 February 2020 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329012511/https://www.highonfilms.com/come-and-see-1985-a-chilling-and-indelible-reminder-of-nazi-carnage/ |url-status=live }}{{cite book |editor-last1=Goscilo |editor-first1=Helena |editor-last2=Hashamova |editor-first2=Yana |title=Cinepaternity. Fathers and Sons in Soviet and Post-Soviet Film |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9clS9PG0KSwC |year=2010 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |isbn=978-0-253-22187-2 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=9clS9PG0KSwC&dq=%22Come+and+See%22&pg=PA95 95ff.]}}

Klimov did not make any more films after Come and See,{{cite news |last=Bergan |first=Ronald |date=4 November 2003 |title=Obituary: Elem Klimov |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/nov/04/guardianobituaries.russia |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=8 June 2009 |archive-date=6 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206095657/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/nov/04/guardianobituaries.russia |url-status=live }} leading some critics to speculate as to why. In 2001, Klimov said, "I lost interest in making films ... Everything that was possible I felt I had already done."

• List of Soviet submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

{{notelist}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite web |last=Carr |first=Jeremy |url=https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/casualties-of-war-elem-klimov-s-come-and-see |title=Casualties of War: Elem Klimov's Come and See |publisher=MUBI |date=20 February 2020 |access-date=10 January 2023}}
• {{cite web |last=Le Fanu |first=Mark |title=Come and See: Orphans of the Storm |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7003-come-and-see-orphans-of-the-storm |publisher=The Criterion Collection |date=30 June 2020 |access-date=4 July 2020}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Michaels |first1=Lloyd |title=Come and See (1985): Klimov's Intimate Epic |journal=Quarterly Review of Film and Video |year=2008 |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=212–218 |doi=10.1080/10509200601091458|s2cid=191450553}}

• {{IMDb title}}
• {{Metacritic movie}}
• [https://russianfilmhub.com/movies/come-and-see-1985/ Come and See] on Russian Film Hub
• Full film on YouTube on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjIiApN6cfg Mosfilm]'s and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJYOg4ORc1w Belarusfilm]'s pages

{{Elem Klimov}}

{{MIFF Main Award|state=autocollapse}}

{{Soviet submission for Academy Awards}}

{{Portal bar|Soviet Union|Film|1980s|Belarus|Russia|Ukraine}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Come And See}}

Category:1985 drama films

Category:1985 films

Category:1985 in the Soviet Union

Category:1980s German-language films

Category:1980s Russian-language films

Category:1980s war drama films

Category:Animal cruelty incidents in film

Category:Anti-war films about World War II

Category:Apocalyptic films

Category:Belarusian drama films

Category:Belarusian-language films

Category:Belarusian World War II films

Category:Eastern Front of World War II films

Category:Existentialist films

Category:World War II films based on actual events

Category:Films about anti-fascism

Category:Films about fascists

Category:Films about Nazism

Category:Films about orphans

Category:Films directed by Elem Klimov

Category:Films set in 1943

Category:Films set in Belarus

Category:Films set in the Soviet Union

Category:Films about gang rape

Category:Metaphysical fiction films

Category:Mosfilm films

Category:Partisan films

Category:Russian war drama films

Category:Russian World War II films

Category:Soviet-era Belarusian films

Category:Soviet war drama films

Category:Soviet World War II films

Category:Works about children in war

Category:Films about child soldiers

Category:Films shot in chronological order

Category:Russian-language war drama films

Category:German-language war drama films